With this week’s launch of my new Christmas by Ear: 8 Tunes to Harmonize book, I thought it would be fitting for this week’s finds to continue on the theme of harmonizing and playing by ear. đ
P.S. There’s a 15% off launch celebration discount going on that will end on Oct. 26 so don’t delay in getting your copy!
I know playing by ear can be a hard topic – it’s something I struggle with every day myself. If we do anything with our students on playing by hearing though as piano teachers, let it be about them playing “Happy Birthday“.
Just this week I had one of my 6th-grade students excitedly tell me about how she gets to be part of the middle school show choir now. In their first practice, the teacher asked if anyone could play the piano. After stating she did, the class (of course!) asked her to play something. What did she play? Happy Birthday! She was SO PROUD she could sit down and do that!
While I’ve had a small handful of students over the years that have incredibly strong ears for playing music by ear, this little guy is probably one of the best. He amazes me at every lesson! Hear him play “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” in 12 keys.
Hold onto your hats – I have a whole lot of goodies for you this month. I’m pretty sure this is one of – if not THE biggest list I’ve ever published!
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Julie Knerr shared a lovely series of photos by her mother that, in 5 images, display the steps it takes to bring a painting from a sketch to a work of art. Use these images as a synonym for your students taking pieces from just learning to polished performance.
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Unfortunately, Teach Piano Today has discontinued its Piano Game Club! The page is still live, but you are no longer able to sign up. It was announced in an email directly to current subscribers.
I’ve been catching up on Nadia Bolz-Weber’s podcast (which is not currently active), The Confessional. One episode almost brought me to tears – Meg Lavery, Storyteller, and Teacher.
It’s time to give my kitchen towels a spiff up. I’m going to use this technique with Oxi Clean recommended by America’s Test Kitchen and subsequently The Kitchn.
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With the turnover of the new season this week, amplify your fall time mood with my Autumn playlist on Spotify.
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Joy Morin came up with a simple and yet brilliant incentive program for her students.
Since we moved into our new house, I’ve discovered rather than keeping all my books in one location on a designated bookshelf, I love keeping them in small groups in a location that fits their theme.
For example, I keep books about having a welcoming home on the kitchen windowsill, books on Music Learning Theory next to my desk, books on learning and personal growth in the stairwell going to my studio so my students see them, and so forth.
Of course, it doesn’t help that I don’t actually have a big enough bookcase to keep all of them in one location but even so, I still love the idea of theme areas!
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Natalie Weber discovered a piece that worked brilliantly as a rote piece for a student who desperately needed it. She shared it along with how she is organizing her rote repertoire both physically (and in Evernote!)
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Are you interested in learning more about Music Learning Theory? Did you know I have a whole page here on Piano Pantry dedicated to MLT resources? Find a list of recommended books, a series of some of my favorite YouTube videos on the topic, podcast episodes, and more!
One resource I recently added was a podcast from Musicality Now: Mind Before Fingers with Marilyn Lowe. I thought this was one of the best I’ve heard from Marilyn.
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One of my former students is an avid songwriter. Follower her on Instagram for wonderful monthly songwriting prompts!
Congratulations to Christopher Goldston on the launch of his new website where he’s self-publishing his own compositions as well as (potentially) some unseen solos from his mother, Margaret Goldston!
As I was preparing this week’s list, I realized this is a topic that’s not really covered a lot in piano teacher world!
How do you welcome students into your studio? By welcome, I mean both in the sense of when a new student comes to your studio for the first time as well as in your daily welcome to weekly recurring students.
Hmmm…
This is definitely something I’ve started to think about!
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I was first inspired by this topic when Joy Morin shared a printable welcome poster. Ah! What I brilliant idea!
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I needed my welcome poster to say a few different things though so I created my own in Canva. Here’s how it turned out:
(Our front door doesn’t always go all the way shut – especially in the winter -and while you think you have shut it, sometimes it needs a good push. Thus, the first step. đ )
At the first week of lessons, for the first time ever, I went outside and greeted students as they came into the studio for our group class. I had everyone gather outside together as others arrived and then we all went in together.
Here’s my full entryway. It’s the front door to the house and students enter and go directly down the steps to the basement. There is a bathroom just off to the right of the entryway.
I took time with the group to point out the checklist which I have in a photo frame right when they enter.
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I don’t know about you, but I’m so tired of nasty hand sanitizer! Lol.
Ever since my studio moved into our new home, I started asking students to remove their shoes.
Not all students may be comfortable removing their shoes, so I decided to buy shoe covers and a small âannouncementâ holder to place in my entryway. That way they have a choice.
As we get going into a new school term, I just wanted to quickly share about the Friday Finds series – especially if you’re new around here – so you can know what to expect. đ
First, my goal is that I can make your life a little easier by weeding through all the content that is out there and sharing the best of what’s worth your time and attention.
Second, I hope that you find these posts unique, refreshing, lighthearted, and fun.
Third, it’s not always just 100% about piano teaching because that’s just how I roll and as you can attest, we aren’t our profession.
Lastly, each week I focus on a specific topic. One of my most recent favorites: was #227 What’s New in Piano Teacher World. At the end of the month, I present a more random list such as today’s “Best of August.”
If you’re new, thanks for being here, and if you’re a regular reader, thanks for sticking around.
While the piano podcast world is starting to get a little saturated, I feel like one person I haven’t gotten to hear much on podcasts is Wendy Stevens. (Of course, I could have just missed them! LOL). Anyway, I really enjoyed hearing her chat with Leila Viss on Episode 28 of the Key Ideas Podcats.
(I’ve been playing catch-up big time on podcasts so you’re going to get quite a few in today’s list!)
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I absolutely love playlists focused on popular tunes that use specific chord progressions. There are two people I found recently that have some great lists on Spotify.
Katie Wardrobe – Melbourne-based music technology trainer, consultant, blogger, and podcaster – has a list for 12-Bar Blues Progressions, 1-5-6-4, Pentatonic Melody, and more.
Robin Giebelhausen – assistant professor of music education at the University of Maryland, College Park, and MLT practitioner extraordinaire – has playlists on the I-V-vi-IV progression, and all the tonalities (Dorian, Mixolydian, etc.), and more.
She says it’s basically Evernote meets Pinterest so obviously I’m intrigued! Are you using Milanote? I would love to hear from you on how you like it. Please share in the comments or drop me a message!
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You guys, this moment right now is my absolute favorite food season and it’s 100% because of tomatoes.
Lunch – dinner – lunch – dinner – lunch – dinner….every day our meals include something with tomatoes. There is nothing like a fresh August tomato – especially beefsteaks. *sigh*
Tomato, Mozzarella & Pesto Panini (Food.com). While it’s on Food.com, it’s actually Ina Garten’s recipe from one of her cookbooks I have.
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What is the best time to post on Instagram? It’s not just when your followers are online, it’s when there’s less competition for posts. While surprising, it makes total sense! Instagram in 2021 According to 35 Million Posts (Later.com).
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My news often comes from The Newsworthy podcast. While I generally skip the Saturday special editions, I did catch and love the July 31st episode with The Grammar Girl including a little talk on using the Oxford Comma.
A new recent podcast find is Sharon Says So. Episode 10 on How to be a good news consumer was especially interesting. Specifically, they talk about how to pay attention to what really matters and let go of what you don’t really need to know.
This episode was one of the only cookbooks to exist in the Soviet Union. It was part of a radical Soviet food experiment aimed at addressing hunger in the USSR.
The reason it fizzled out was simply that it was hard to roll out a big post like that during such a busy time of year.
After seeing several new things pop up here recently, the start of the new school year felt like another good time of year to do this kind of a post!
Cheers to those bringing us new products, tools, and resources to make our lives easier, and cheers to you, the teachers, who help make creative dreams possible!
P.S. I’m considering things “new” within the past 12 months or so.
Rosemarie Penner of The Unfinished Lesson has gone through an update and moved Facebook and Instagram accounts. Be sure and follow her new accounts before the end of August when the old ones close.
Preorders are now being taken for Nicola Cantan’s Practice Pie book, designed for piano parents. At the moment, just the ebook version is available. Hardcopy preorders will be taken starting August 23.
Whether you’re starting lessons up in the next week or two or at the beginning of September, now is the time to start gathering ideas for the beginning of the term and get your space in order.
A few years ago, after my friend Christina Whitlock told me how she avoids scheduling madness by doing only group classes in August, I’ve been doing it ever since! (Well, at least the first week or two.)
The first lesson of the year – whether private lessons or group classes – are a great time to focus your entire studio on learning to play Happy Birthday.
If you’re not recycling your batteries, maybe now is a good time to consider getting started. Check out Call2Recycle for places near you!
My husband and I keep a small plastic container in our cleaning closet that we throw old batteries in. Once that piles up, we take them into our local Lowe’s store who recycles them. Thank you, Lowe’s!
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My favorite cloth for cleaning my pianos (recommended by my piano tuner) is the Guardsman Cleaning Cloth.
It has a slightly sticky surface that grabs dirty but doesn’t leave a residue on your piano. Simply rinse the cloth and hang it to dry!
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One of my favorite MLT-practitioners and Ukulele Songbook creators, Robin Giebelhausen, has a Spotify profile with playlists of pieces in Duple Meter, Triple Meter, and all the “modes.” What a gem and fun way to start training your ear!
I have a lot of podcasts that I listen to – many of which I zip in and out of (basically, love it, but don’t feel the need to catch them all).
While The Next Right Thing has become one of those (and that’s OK!), her most recent episode, 185: Why Makers Struggle to Get things Done had me nodding my head in agreement and relief (that it was a thing) like a wild woman.
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I love Ashley’s podcast episode on having students make a short video reflection on why they make music. This would be a fun little project to do at your first group class of the year! (Ashley Danyew | Field Notes on Music Learning Episode 032)
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It doesn’t matter how many times I hear Marvin Blickenstaff, I always walk away feeling like teaching is a gem and he is my grandpa holding my hand along the way. (That’s a good thing, Marvin!) đ It was no less so when I listened to his podcast episode with Ben Kapilow on the Nuts and Bolts of Piano Pedagogy.
My friend has been making this summer fruit salad at recent gatherings and oh my goodness, SO GOOD. The photo doesn’t show it but there are banana slices and they really add a nice creaminess. (All Recipes)
Joy has a giveaway going on of Wendy Chan’s Music Escapade products. You might know my luck, I ordered Wendy’s Grand Staff board just a week before Joy posted this giveaway. Darn! Oh well, one more chance for you! Enter before August 9.
It’s the end of the month which means I have a nice hefty list for you. Take what you need, leave the rest, and by all means, ignore it completely if you don’t have the bandwidth.
Otherwise, I hope you can find something that intrigues you, sparks your imagination, makes life easier, or even just brings a moment of joy.
Playlists are a fun little pastime for me so I was back at it again, creating a 4th of July one.
A disclaimer on the Independence Day playlist: it is not full of Patriotic marching band-type music but I will admit there might be some Country music involved (not normally my genre of choice). đ Enjoy!
Eventually, I’m going to run out of playlist ideas. LOL.
I am absolutely loving the beautiful printable music posters that Joy shared recently. What a fun way to decorate your space! (Joy Morin | Color in My Piano)
While classic bate-click marketing, it’s a pretty good recommendation. Just to make it easier for you – the article says you should clean your dishwasher filter once a month.
Let me go further. I put a reminder on my calendar the last Friday of the month to do the following things:
Run the dishwasher through a cleaning cycle (apparently, I should also clean the filter).
Run the coffee maker through a cleaning cycle.
Give the kitchen sinks a good cleaning with Bar Keeper’s Friend. (Probably should do this more often but it can get away from you easily.)
Plunk a cleaning tablet (Lemi-Shine is my favorite) into the garbage disposals. (Yes, that was plural. I have two – one in my regular sink and one in my prep sink. #spoiled)
Wash all bedding (including mattress and pillow covers and blankets).
So, I went crazy when I saw Melody Payne also a whole series of this popular game. You can purchase them as a bundle or, as I did, just pick and choose which ones you want and purchase them individually.
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A studio teacher giving out a scholarship to a graduating senior? What a wonderful idea!
We eat a LOT of salads in the Summer. It’s so nice having a variety to choose from and really loved the take on the Burger Bowl. It kind of feels like a taco salad but tastes like a burger without the bun!
Lauren is always a great resource for great repertoire finds!
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There’s a good chance with Summer being busy for many people and kids being out and about, preparation for a Summer recital may not happen as easily for all. Rosemarie over at the Unfinished Lesson has some tips for us:
Anyone else have students who love playing Billie Joel? One summer, one of my students requested “Rocket Man” and I must say, it was an excellent lesson in syncopation!
Youâll get my once-a-month âSecret Letterâ which includes whatâs been going on in my studio that month, books Iâm reading, and more. You will also have the option to have new posts delivered to your inbox weekly.
Since the first day of Summer is just a little more than a week away and many of us are already on our “summer” schedule, let’s celebrate all things for this upcoming season.
Whether you gather ideas for your studio, permission to find ways to unplug and getaway, or
I hope you find a little something for yourself today.
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My favorite flip-flop is the Sanuk Yoga Spree. Every summer I buy one more pair. This year I went for the Summer Yellow. My arch’s never hurt when wearing these – even if I wear them ALL DAY!
I don’t know about you, but I’m so tired of nasty hand sanitizer! Lol.
Whether it’s for my students or visitors in general, there’s something nice about having a little inviting dish of candy.
